My Favorite Photos Of 2024

This was a different year for me photo wise. I started moving away from the sports side a little and branched out to some new things. I was finally able to make photos at a couple of plays locally. I have always wanted to do that so it was amazing to get a couple of chances. At the end of summer I had the chance to get out and make some photos of a group of mural artists who came into the area for a couple of weeks. That project started off as one thing, but then quickly changed into another more involved but amazing project. We also had the total eclipse that we were able to see here in Indiana. It was an event that is super hard to describe, but it was amazing. This was a fun year where I was able to kind of stretch my photography muscles a little bit. Below are a few of my favorite photos from this past year.

It is hard to pick a favorite moment from the year, but seeing the eclipse might just be the one moment that stands out above the others. We went down to Thorntown, Indiana because it was in totality for a little while, and it would be easy to get to. I had heard stories about how cool the eclipse could be, but nothing could prepare me for how amazing it actually was. It will be a while before I get another shot at something like this, but I will be ready when it comes around again.

These might be my favorite sports images from last year. I was late in posting my favorite baseball images so I was just going to post them at the end of the year with all the others. For some reason though when I wrote the post up I decided to hit send and put it out there. I am glad that I did. My father is the one who taught me to love baseball, and he picked these two as his favorites from that post. We lost him two days later. Our last baseball conversation of the thousands that we had were about these two photos. My first baseball game next year might be a hard one. I lost my baseball buddy in 2024. It will be weird to photograph a game and not have that conversation about it.

Every year I love to get out to the Wabash to watch the eagles. They don’t always come your way, but if the wind and the light is right you can make some fun photos. Here an eagle starts to bank after making a good catch.

As I mentioned above this year I had the chance to follow a handful of artists that came to town as part of the Wabash Walls event. I could never describe how inspiring it was to see them go through their process. I don’t think that any two artists had the same process which was really cool to see. It is hard to take that two weeks down to a few images, but here I tried to just show a couple of my favorite images from each artist.

Zach Edey turned Mackey into a madhouse with a three pointer against Indiana. I was fairly wide for the play, and that resulted in one of my favorite photos of the year.

This was easily the highlight of the year for me as far as music goes. Yo Yo Ma came to Purdue to talk about his process and to play a few songs. I have edited photos to his music for years now so it was crazy to get to see him play it live. At the end when he did an audience participation bit I walked down to see him up close. I am glad that I did. It was great to hear him talk about his process. I am a process guy, and I love to hear about how other creatives do their thing. He had an enthusiasm for music that was contagious as well. I think that this photo shows that off very nicely.

This was the year of finding the murals in my area. I found Wabash Avenue and the murals there this summer, and then a few weeks later I had the pleasure of seeing some new murals being painted. This one might be my favorite. It is very striking as you drive down the road.

While we are talking about murals I was passing through Wolcott on the way home from a softball game when I saw this mural and the sunset. It was a perfect combination for a photo.

This photo had multiple layers of luck attached to it. To start off I was not at the Celery Bog much this year. The odds that the pelicans would be there when I was were very slim. Then this pelican that was somewhat close to me which was lucky. It grabbed a catfish and tried to swallow it, but it wouldn’t go down easily. It had to try several times which gave me multiple options for a photo. I liked this one the best.

I don’t think that it is any secret that I grew up a huge Notre Dame football fan. I grew up an Irish Catholic boy not far from the stadium. One of my favorite players over the years was Bryant Young. Here his son Bryce celebrates a huge play on the field. That boy from LaPorte loved making this photo.

The infrared camera helps make some very nice looking photos in the worst light. Here in the middle of the day it allowed me to make a striking photo in a familiar spot.

For the last home football game of the year I went wide a couple of times. For the runout I wanted the starburst in my photo. The timing of it was a little off, but I think that the team running out late actually made the photo. Just after the half the sun was setting and the sky was lighting up. I ran up into the stands after a score to make this photo of the kickoff with the sunset. I like both of them, and they are both reasons why this countdown is fun for me.

This church was a fun find when I just started driving around Lafayette getting lost in my own town. I was in an area that I didn’t know that well, but I had fun finding new things. This church was everything that I wanted in a church photo. I love how this turned out.

This year the Purdue Union turned 100. I had some fun making photos of it from different angles showing what a cool landmark it is. I don’t know if this is what they had in mind for it over 100 years ago, but it has become a great place for students and people from town to hang out. I like this photo of it best with a little movement in it.

This was a fun night at the Purdue airport after Purdue clinched a Final Four berth. There was a huge crowd at the airport, and the players really enjoyed celebrating with the fans. This was a party that was a long time coming. It was awesome to be a part of it, and I hope that I can do it again sometime.

If you read this blog often then you know that the past couple of years or so I have had some fun finding the post office buildings in the towns that I go through. It is a fun way to pass the time while traveling. This post office in West Lebanon might be my favorite. It is unique, and I happened to be going through the town as the sun was setting. I really like how this photo turned out.

I made this one foggy morning on campus. I found a spot that I liked, and I hoped for something interesting to come into the frame. I didn’t have much time so whatever was going to come had to come quick. I was losing my blue hour light quickly. I was extremely lucky that a bike with a headlight on it came into the frame adding a lot to this photo.

For one game every year at Harrison you get some great light during the team runout. I spend the final few minutes before the runout every year hoping the team hurries up before the sun goes behind the locker room. It always works out though so I don’t know why I worry so much. For this game I was photographing for the local paper, and this was a fun photo to have right away from the game.

This is part of a fun scene that I saw on Ferry Street. You have the normal front porch scene in good light, but the equation on the board makes it a fun photo for me. This year as I keep saying I wanted to focus on small scenes more. This definitely qualifies.

This photo is heavily inspired by Saul Leiter. He liked to use elements of the foreground as ways to frame things out of his photos. The deep snow help me just focus on this talking head at Pao Hall.

I don’t know that a cow patch is a stadium, but on this day it was. The Prophetstown old time baseball game is always a good time. I love the old rules and equipment. The barn is the perfect backdrop for the photo as well.

Another fun thing to find on the road has been the Carnegie libraries. These are little, unique libraries in mostly small towns. The town would have had to have written the Carnegie foundation for a grant with a proposal for a small library. If accepted they would get the grant to build these libraries. They are all unique in their own way. Here is my favorite library find of the year. While we were in Thorntown for the eclipse I made this photo of the statue out front of the library all prepared to see the sun with her glasses on.

It is weird being in Mackey knowing that most of the fans are there for the other team. Caitlyn Clark was that player though that brought people in from all over. I had some fun during the day making photos of her and the fans that she brought into the stadium. This is one of my favorites from that night.

I like this photograph of Triple XXX for a couple of reasons. The first is the way that it came out in black and white. The second is how the people in the window look. This really reminds me a little of the famous Edward Hopper painting. I am not comparing the two, but this gives me a dime store fell of it.

This is one of my favorite photos on the year. I was looking for a photo when I got a call from my family. I was waited for the sun to pop out for a second and it did right when a nice little van was coming by. It was kind of neat to make this image with my parents and brother on FaceTime with me. This was going to be a fun photo, but the van turned it into one of my favorite images of the year.

I like a good black and white reflection photo. Here you don’t get a lot of the reflection, but it is enough. Sometimes the worst weather nights are the best nights for photography on campus.

This is a scene that I realize happens quite a bit during the summer, but this was the first time that I saw it. I love the ice cream truck and the ivy on the wall to the side of it. These are more of the photos that I wanted to make last year. Little scenes showing where I live.

The infrared camera comes through again to give me a frame that I really like of the Tippecanoe County Courthouse. This is another simple frame with the negative space doing a lot of lifting.

Also this year while out on the road I had some fun finding the local Pizza King restaurants. Due to the fractured nature of the company they all look different but with the same name. It has been fun finding these buildings and documenting them. Here is one of one of my favorites from Attica, Indiana. You have a classic building with the Pizza King in it. You even have a mural by CERA on the side of the building. When I was looking this building up I found a post where CERA talked about the experience making this mural. I had the thought at the time that it would be amazing to watch him paint one of these murals. A few months later I was able to see him make two murals here in West Lafayette.

My favorite basketball photo of the year might be this shot of the Big Ten trophy. The year before I was not on the floor making photos. For years I was in the stands on assignment when Purdue won the trophy, and then I found myself shutout in 2023. I made my mind up to do whatever it took to get back on the court, and I was very happy to finally get to make this photo.

This is a photo that I wish that I didn’t make. I was back in my hometown of LaPorte, Indiana for a few days because of the passing of my father. Ten years before his death I made a photo across the lake at sunset when his brother passed. He loved that photo and I had it printed out for him. He made a custom frame for it, and it sat where he could see it everyday. In fact when he died it was right next to him. Flash forward ten years and I was not doing so well. I was having a really hard time with what had happened. I decided to try and make a photo of the sunset for my father. It would be a distraction for a few minutes, and give me a goal. A neighbor across the lake lit a huge leaf pile on fire, and I suddenly had some smoke for the sun rays to come through. A lot of things were in my favor here to make a good photo. I still wish that I wasn’t up there to make it though.

This was an amazing year for my photography. I was able to find a new way to look at things that really reinvigorated what I do. I was also back out on the road making photos. Of course there were bumps in the road. At one point in the year I took a pretty good gut punch. It is what you do with that gut punch that defines you though. This year I hope to build on the little things that made my year in photography so much fun. This has been a fun first part of the year looking back at last year. It is a fun way to show where I have been while also seeing where I need to go in the following year. Thank you for following along with these posts.